In most organizations, certain equipement or rooms of different types are available to users, but the management of these elements can be complexe. Octopus allows to manage reservation with only a few simple configuraiton steps.

The DataImporter program (ESI.Octopus.DataImporterApp.exe) can be used to import and/or synchronize data from an external source that is compatible with OLEDB/ODBC.
DataImporter can be used to perform the initial import of data or to synchronize on a regular basis data contained in another system.
This article explains how DataImporter works and the different types of import available.

In the past, the access level of an Octopus user was determined by the selection of permissions from a list of all the permissions available. The modification of the permissions had to be done manually for each Octopus user.
From version 3.8 and beyond, we are introducing the notion of roles that will facilitate and improve the access management of Octopus and ensure the security level. Each role contains its own permissions and the Octopus users have one or more roles that automatically inherit the sum of the permissions from each role.

Planned requests are used to automatically create service requests or change requests for work that needs to be done on a regular basis. They can be used to manage preventive maintenance or equipment maintenance for; IT, Facilities Management, Biomedical Engineering or other teams. The requests generated from a planned request are internal to the department and cannot be asked or viewed by the end users.
Examples:
Checking on the backups (IT)
Checking the heating system (Building facilities)
Preventive maintenance of a defibrillator (Biomedical)

Octopus’ Automated Approvals Solution enables you to effectively implement the global execution process of a request when an approval is required.
This document will run you through the concepts that support this solution. It was developed in order to consider several approval modes that fulfill the organizational approval process and automize it through the Octopus request types, in this case service request, problem or change.
We have written this document to introduce the approval concepts for service requests (SR), because of the constant challenge that they represent for the IT organizations. Approvals are also available in the Problem and Change modules, but they may work differently in these contexts.

The Access Management Solution provides a frame of rules and principles that lead to sound management of accesses to informational assets. It helps to formalize, in Octopus, the accesses granted or revoked, either as part of the arrival of a new employee, a departure, or simply in a request to add one or several accesses to an existing employee.